EARLY GIRL SWEET HEART

This is the third tomato from my Early Girl tomato plants.  The other two were just small roundish tomatoes.  I thought this one was cute.  The two other tomatoes were delicious, a little sweet, and very flavorful. Husband said next year I should grow more tomatoes. Sounds good to me.  This one is almost too cute to eat, but who can resist?


THIS PHOTO IS SUCH A MASTERPIECE THAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW IT BELONGS TO THIS SITE???

I have read reviews of the Early Girl variety of tomatoes and some were not too favorable.  Maybe some of the plants differ from each other, because the tomatoes from my plants are really good.  Maybe it was the Tums I added to the soil.  I read on someone's blog (I wish that I could remember which one) that adding Tums to her container grown vegetables helped them grow.  I mentioned in a previous post that my potatoes got dosed with a couple of Tums, well, so did the tomatoes, and my patty pan squash.  I have never attempted container grown tomatoes (or any other vegetables)  before, but so far, so good, knock on wood.

July is bustin' out all over in my flower beds.  My zinnias are doing great and so far,  surviving the Japanese Beetles.  The Knockout Roses, in the background, are trying their best to bloom again despite the leaf eating caterpillars and then the Japanese Beetles. 

FIRST YEAR FOR CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE ROSE IN EARLY SUMMER BEFORE THE BEETLES

The David Austin Christopher Marlowe rose is brave and carries on, despite a blitz of J. Beetles on every bloom.  I wanted some blooms for a bouquet, so when the buds were small, and still beetle-free,  I enclosed several of them in little tulle gift bags that were left over from Christmas.  The gift bags worked to keep the horrid beetles out but allowed the bud to grow and open inside the bag.  The petals were a little curled, and the blooms a bit small; but, ahh, that D. A. Christopher Marlowe rose fragrance is wonderful. 

My 16 year old hibiscus plant started blooming this week. Usually it blooms during the first week of July.  Many years ago one of the people that I tutored gifted me with several plants.  This is the only one that still survives.  Every year I look forward to seeing it again, and am so happy to see its blooming face. Does anyone else get emotionally attached to their plants?

The calibrachoa flowers are really pretty this year.  They are the red flowers beneath the flag that you can see behind the zinnias in the photo.

These are calibrachoas in a large flower pot out by the street. It was originally an average hanging basket. I transplanted it into a bigger flower pot.  Wow!  It has gotten big.

As you can see from the pictures, I don't manage to stick to a planned or coordinated color scheme with my flower beds and front yard plants, or even the front porch chair cushion.  I don't think I could manage to find a more dizzying array of flower colors if I really tried to.  When I am anywhere that has flowers for sale I always throw color coordination to the winds and just buy whatever color is looking prettiest to me that day.  Apparently,  I have a lot of red and fuchsia days. And then there are the zinnias. They all do their own thing.  I saved seeds from last year plus added a couple of newly bought seed packs this spring in case my saved ones weren't good.  I think that they must have all sprouted, a perfectly kaleidoscopic effect. That's it.  My color scheme is "Kaleidoscope", or maybe "Kaleidoscope Shabby"

I haven't removed the little flag that was for the Fourth of July yet.  It is only July 17, after all.  We are in the midst of glorious full-on summer.  Savor it.  Memorize it.  It will be a February fantasy.